


Navigation of Roommate Reunions

by greendale_student



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Post-Season/Series 06, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-07-19 08:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7353958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greendale_student/pseuds/greendale_student
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the study group reunites to welcome Troy back, Annie and Abed consider what they mean to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Missing Lover Footage

‘Virtually Real’ Pre-cancelled, Episodes to Air “Sometime”

Virtually Real, a sitcom set in a video game studio which had attracted buzz from critics but drew concerns from executives about its wider appeal, became the first cancellation of the network TV season before a single episode aired…an unnamed network official said the five episodes already filmed would be aired “sometime, probably this season, it depends on what fails”…the studio is rumored to be seeking a pickup from a streaming service, but it is unclear if any are interested…

 

Abed Nadir closed the news article on his laptop and glanced out the apartment window where the sun was setting behind the hills, the light glinting off the intervening rooftops of Hollywood. Nothing in the article was news to him; the production staff had been informed of the decision early that afternoon when an executive arrived to shut down filming in the middle of a key scene. He hadn’t really been very surprised; the show, as much as it suited his sensibilities, showed all the signs of being too innovative for network television. Most of the writers and actors had been deeply upset; they might have thought this was their big break. Abed, just a production assistant, was less concerned. He could go home to Colorado with some firsthand experience of the TV business to apply to making his own films, free from the limitations imposed by network suits with no appreciation for art. What troubled him at the moment was what he would come home to. He knew the remaining members of the Save Greendale Committee would be there to welcome him at his old school, just in time for another semester. Jeff would make snarky comments, then awkwardly commiserate with him over this setback when they were alone. Britta, feuding with her latest would-be roommate, would be delighted to welcome him back to his old apartment. Maybe Frankie and the Dean would try to get him to teach a film class now that he had experience in Hollywood. But when he thought of Greendale, the people his thoughts turned to the most were those still absent from the campus.

Searching through a long list of films and scripts saved on the computer, he found the file he was looking for, one labelled “Missing Lover Footage.” Pressing play, he watched the scene unfold, his former roommate Annie Edison talking flirtatiously to the camera. After a minute, Britta interrupted, Annie breaking character to explain how the protagonists of movies were always shown watching videos like that if their love interest had been killed or kidnapped. Thinking about rationally, Abed had to conclude there wasn’t much real need for the footage. He hadn’t even shown it to anyone else, even though he’d edited some of it into his documentary about Garrett’s wedding. Annie was perfectly safe across the country in Washington, and Abed wasn’t supposed to be her love interest outside of paintball and a few in-character scenarios that couldn’t safely be allowed to intrude on the main plot. Nonetheless, he kept coming back to this video and a few others she featured prominently in, out of all the hours of video he had to remind him of life at Greendale. He told himself that it was the acting skill that drew him to this scene, her admirable ability to inhabit the role once she fully committed to it, but it was the outtake at the end that he ended up rewinding to see again, the moment of unscripted conversation between them captured on film.

Uncomfortable with the direction his thoughts were taking him, Abed turned to an earlier short film he had made with Troy, one of many he had been revisiting frequently since his best friend set out to sail around the world. After reaching the end of that one, he switched to Time-osaurs, a more elaborate project from last summer, wondering if some final edits to the soundtrack were needed. Again he lingered on the scenes he and Annie had filmed together: her tracking the revived dinosaurs through the forest, and later leading his character across a river to escape a pursuing Allosaurus. The cheaply animated dinosaur looked unconvincing and the small mountain stream where they had shot the scene was obviously not much of an obstacle, but the intensity she brought to everything still made it seem real. He had a finished script for a sequel, but had never tried to film it. He hadn’t had much time for his own projects while working on the show, but the main reason was that he couldn’t really see anyone other than Annie and Troy in the leading roles.

At last, Abed paused the movie and began looking for tickets back home, trying not to think how empty the study room would seem now. Before he could get far, his cell phone rang, the noise startling in the quiet of the tiny apartment. The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number and area code. He considered ignoring it, half expecting reporters looking for comments about the show’s cancellation, but decided to pick up on the off-chance it was something mysterious that could start a more interesting storyline.

“Hello, this is Abed Nadir.”

The familiar voice on the other end made him freeze.

“Abed? I’m coming home.”


	2. Competitive Forensics

It did not feel like the beginning of autumn to Annie Edison.  It might be early September by the calendar, but the airport parking lot was oppressively hot, the sun glaring off cars in between expanses of scorched pavement.  The surrounding landscape of highway overpasses and suburban sprawl seemed to offer little relief.  The weather had her wishing for home, for cooler nights without stifling humidity and the psychological relief of snow-capped mountains on the horizon.

Not that it could ruin her good mood.  Troy was coming back, and Annie was about to see the rest of the study group for the first time in months.  That prospect could distract her from just about any inconvenience.

Troy had called her second out of the group when he announced the near-completion of his sailing voyage around the world a few days before, but Abed still got the news to her first.  Late at night, asleep after a stressful day at the conclusion of her summer internship with the FBI, she had been awakened by his excited text messages.  Once she had talked to Troy and learned the details of his plans, Annie had set out to make sure the rest of the group gave him a proper welcome.  _Imagine his face when he sees all of us waiting for him_.

Troy had called from a Caribbean island, one of his last stops with access to a phone (his own phone had apparently been lost at sea).  Early in the voyage, after a dramatic escape from a crew of pirates, Troy and his shipmate had briefly stopped to rest at Pierce Hawthorne’s former vacation condo in Florida, the one he had willed to Shirley Bennett.  Troy meant to finish the journey there, a symbolic tribute to the friend who had sent him on this quest.  With Shirley’s permission, Annie had invited the rest of the Greendale Seven to meet him there.  Of course Abed had already been making plans to see Troy as soon as possible, and he had immediately embraced the whole plan.  Jeff and Britta needed more persuading, but Annie had talked them into it soon enough.  Since they weren’t sure exactly how long Troy’s last stretch of sailing would take, they had arranged to stay for a week, plenty of time for the study group to reconnect after so many of them had drifted away over the last few years.

There was just one glitch in her perfect plan.  Shirley had suggested Annie travel there with her, and since she was hosting the whole thing and they hadn’t seen each other in months, it felt wrong to refuse.  Which meant that instead of flying straight to Florida and meeting her friend at the beach, Annie was here, outside the Atlanta airport, waiting for Shirley to pick her up so they could get ready to spend the next day in the car.

Still, once Shirley pulled into the parking lot and ran over to hug Annie, the younger woman told herself it was better this way.  It would be a chance to spend quality time with someone she knew sometimes felt left out of their adventures at Greendale.  And if Annie was being honest with herself, her doubts about their planned road trip had less to do with the travel time than with the potential for conversation—specifically, the inevitable questions about her future plans.  _You made your decision_ , she reminded herself.  _It’s not really Shirley you’re afraid will be second-guessing you, it’s your high school self_.  As they got in the car and headed for the city, they started joking about how the Save Greendale Committee must be mismanaging the school without them, and Annie put her inner debate aside.

 

She spent that night at Shirley’s apartment in a quiet part of Atlanta.  At dusk, after being presented with an impressive array of baked goods and helping to pack the car, Annie walked downstairs and stepped outside, needing a moment to herself.  Walking aimlessly down the street, she found a little park surrounded by a dense stand of oak trees.  The chorus of crickets and cicadas was so loud, she almost didn’t notice her phone ringing.  Glancing at the screen, she recognized Abed’s number and smiled.

“Hi, Abed.  Are you on your way already?”

“No, my flight leaves at seven tomorrow.  I’ll probably get there a little before you.  Or a lot before.  I’m not sure Shirley’s plan is so smart.  Taking a road trip with a friend you haven’t seen in a while could lead to the car breaking down and leaving you stranded in a quirky small town where you have to confront long-buried tensions in your friendship before you can finish the journey, or—“

“Abed, I’m sure it’ll be fine.  Shirley just got her car tuned up, we already planned out our route, and I’m too excited for our study group reunion to argue about her inevitable attempts to convert me.”

“Just be careful.  Losing so many cast members can really throw off a show’s rhythm.  We need as much time as possible with everyone there to get things back on track.”

“I miss you too, Abed.”

“I know.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Cool.  Cool, cool, cool.”

 

When they set out the next morning, Annie was again nervous about how to answer Shirley’s questions.  But it turned out there weren’t many for a long time; the other woman mainly needed to talk about her own problems—her father’s struggles, and how much she missed her children when they were in Colorado with Andre.  They had crossed most of Georgia before the conversation turned to Annie’s doings.

“So, Annie.  Have you been working on any good cases with the FBI?  Did they offer you a job?”  There was a competitive glint in Shirley’s eye.  The two of them had maintained an informal contest to see who could get involved in the best mysteries over the summer.  Annie’s FBI internship gave her a connection to more important cases, but only by doing minor tasks to help the agents working on them, while the detective who had hired Shirley as a personal chef also let her help more closely with his investigations.

So even though this was the conversation she had been apprehensive about, Annie smirked and suddenly felt much more confident.  Whatever Shirley thought of her decision, the circumstances that led her to it ought to even the score and then some. 

“I might’ve taken on some freelance work when the Bureau wasn’t keeping me too busy,” she announced, feigning a casual attitude.  Shirley, in the driver’s seat, switched off the radio and gave Annie her full attention.

“What do you mean?  I told you about my cases, you owe me details!”

“I’m afraid the details of the Smithsonian Air Vent Incident of 2015 are confidential pending the official investigation, although—“ Annie glanced conspiratorially at Shirley—“maybe I could give you a general idea if you keep it between the two of us.”  _This should keep us entertained for the rest of the trip_ , she thought.

 


	3. Fly on the Wall

The backseat of the rental car would make a poor camera angle from which to view the conversation in the front, but Abed still watched intently.  He needed to catch up on the group’s dynamics after being absent for the summer.  At least he had a head start: Jeff and Britta had met him at the airport and offered him a ride up the coast to Shirley’s condo, which gave him a chance to spend some time with them before the whole group gathered.  At present, everything seemed to be going as expected, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something important.

Positioning himself so he could see Jeff’s reflection in the rearview mirror, he tried to read his friend’s unfamiliar expression.  Perhaps an uncharacteristic sense of awe at the glimpse of the ocean when they went over a bridge.  Abed remembered Jeff talking to Troy the day he left, admitting he had never been outside of Colorado.  This trip might be good character development for him, an antidote to his excess cynicism.  As long as he didn’t stray _too_ far from his usual self.  That concern was quickly resolved when Britta, who was driving, asked Jeff to look at the map and they began a protracted argument over the relative merits of paper maps and GPS.  Glancing at his phone, Abed found more good news: a text message from Annie, saying that she and Shirley had so far avoided most of the standard road trip storylines and were on track to arrive later that evening.  It was Annie who Abed most needed to spend time with before Troy arrived.  He had stayed in touch with her more than any of the others while he was in California, but he found that couldn’t substitute for her presence in person.  And Abed had no idea when he’d see her again after this week.

When they came to a stop in a motel parking lot a couple of blocks from the beach, Abed reviewed the data from the car ride.  Jeff’s interactions with him had included the expected swerve from sarcasm to an awkward show of sympathy.  After some vehement denunciations of the network’s mercenary decision in cancelling the show Abed had worked on, Britta was eager to encourage him to return to Apartment 303, which he gladly accepted.  Her bickering with Jeff was within normal parameters, but had gone on thirty percent longer than average while staying at a low level of vitriol.  Abed wondered what that might mean.

Not wanting to overwhelm Shirley with guests, Jeff and Britta had made reservations at the little motel where they parked.  While they checked in, Abed walked towards the beach, wanting to set the scene for the study group’s reunion.  At the end of the street, a narrow boardwalk led across the dunes.  As he reached the highest point on the path, a view of the ocean opened up: a perfect establishing shot.  Looking past the crowds of tourists on the beach and the little waves gently breaking against the sand, Abed stared out to sea.  There were several motorboats in sight, some surfers, and a jet ski, but his attention was drawn to the two sailboats well out from shore.

Neither resembled the one he had watched disappearing from sight on the street at Greendale a year and a half ago.  Of course they didn’t; Troy wasn’t expected for a few more days.  Holding back his long-held frustration with the duration of his best friend’s absence, Abed reminded himself to be patient.  He surveyed the rest of his surroundings more carefully.  Down the beach to his right, the crowds thinned out and the buildings behind the dunes were replaced by trees.  To Abed’s left, a series of tall apartment buildings stood just inland.  Walking that way, he soon recognized Shirley’s building from the pictures she’d posted online.  Abed sat down on the beach there, waiting until Annie and Shirley were due to arrive.

Before then, Jeff and Britta showed up, refraining from arguing for the moment as Jeff was distracted by his first good look at the ocean.  Britta reached for her cell phone to take a picture, then frowned as she put it back in her pocket.

“I think I dropped the room key,” she announced.

“Great.  If I have to sleep on Shirley’s couch because you can’t keep track of—“

“Save it, Winger, I’ve seen how you organize your office.”

“Yeah, and you’d know all about that from your bartending job.”

As they continued along the beach out of earshot, still arguing, Abed watched with a quizzical expression.  Britta’s mistake was perfectly in-character, but it didn’t follow that _Jeff_ would have to stay with Shirley because of it.  Unless…

_Uh-oh_.

Abed knew a plot twist to shake up the group dynamic should have been expected in a reunion episode, but he couldn’t ignore the potential for trouble.  After a last glance out to the horizon revealed no sign of Troy, he got up and headed for the path back to the street.  He had to make sure he was the first to meet Annie when she arrived.  Abed wasn’t necessarily opposed to the new development, but he knew it could hurt Annie, and the first priority was to soften the blow as much as possible.  He wondered if this might have the characteristics of a misdirect, a last-minute source of drama that only set up the resolution of Jeff and Annie’s will-they-or-won’t-they relationship.  That possibility might fit better with the logic of sitcom plots.

For once, plot conventions failed to reassure Abed in the least.

 


	4. Roommate Reunions and Infant Anarchists

As they drove the last stretch, off the main highway and towards the Atlantic, Annie could hardly wait to arrive.  Just a few more minutes and she could see the study group again.  They had only been apart for a summer, but the knowledge that everyone was so far away had made it feel like a longer separation than any school vacation in their time at Greendale.  And, of course, for the last few summers she had been sharing an apartment with Abed.  During those months in Washington, though all of the Greendale Seven were much in her thoughts, it was Abed’s absence she had felt the most: the lack of anyone to watch a movie with when she came home, or to distract her when mundane anxieties about work consumed her thoughts.  She reminded herself not to get too pushy in her need to spend time with him again.  Abed would surely be distracted by Troy’s return, she had to respect his space as he dealt with all the emotions of seeing his best friend again after so long.

When they finally turned into the parking lot of Shirley’s building, Annie glanced around in case the others were waiting for them.  To her delight, Abed was standing under a palm tree a few yards away.  She sprang out of the car the moment Shirley parked and ran out to meet him.  Nearly colliding in their haste, they instead stopped short an arm’s length apart and perfectly executed their elaborate private handshake.  Then Annie stepped forward to embrace Abed.  Knowing he didn’t usually know how to respond to hugs, she backed away quickly, but to her surprise Abed awkwardly wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer for another moment.  Then Shirley was there and Annie stepped back to let her greet Abed.  Annie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and glanced away, unexpectedly flustered.  She told herself the subtropical heat was just making her feel dizzy.

When they had said their hellos, Shirley headed for the front door of the building.  Annie started to follow, but Abed pulled her aside.  A bit confused, she let him lead her to the nearest patch of shade on the edge of the parking lot.

“Annie, I need to tell you something before you see the others.  There’s a situation developing with the study group that might be upsetting, and I want to make sure you’re prepared for it,” he said with a serious expression.

“What is it, Abed?  You’re making me nervous.”  The last she had heard, everyone was fine.  Jeff and Britta had been excited for the group’s reunion, and Troy was out at sea and likely couldn’t have contacted any of them.  What could be so alarming?

Abed sighed and continued, “From my observations in the last few hours, it appears that Jeff and Britta may have resumed their long-dormant friends-with-benefits relationship.”

Annie nodded and waited for the punchline.  Considering the possibilities, she gasped.

“Is she pregnant?” she asked with trepidation.  “Did they really go through with getting married this time?  Did Britta convince Jeff to quit his job and join an anarchist collective?”

Abed tilted his head to the side.  His expression was subtle, but Annie had spent enough time with him to recognize the look of confusion.

“You knew about it?” he asked.

“Britta told me a few weeks ago, I’m surprised neither of them talked to you.”  Now it was Annie’s turn to be confused.  “Was that all this was about?”

Abed studied her carefully.  “Jeff was your love interest for years.  You kissed him before you left Greendale.  I assumed you’d be upset to finally see him again and find out he’s sleeping with another woman.” 

Annie laughed.  “Why do I bother trying to hide anything from you?”

“I could tell there was something odd going on with Jeff before we left.  He told me when I asked what was on his mind.”

Now that the subject had come up, Annie wondered why she _hadn’t_ just told Abed about the kiss.  Why wouldn’t she share that information with her closest friend?  She recalled her own discomfort when Abed had been dating Rachel last year, a feeling she had worked hard to suppress when Abed asked for relationship advice, and her relief when they eventually broke up. 

_Not now, Annie!_   She tried to put such thoughts out of her mind.  Abed had enough to deal with as it was, and the last thing either of them needed was more melodrama surrounding the study group.  Still, though she was touched by Abed’s concern for her feelings, he had also seemed distressed by the mention of her kissing Jeff… _Stop it!  Abed’s worried that romantic entanglements will endanger the fabric of the group, you know that._   She reached for the words to explain what had happened.

“Abed, I didn’t kiss him to…it was a goodbye.  I’m over it, I have been for a while, I thought you knew that.  I guess I was just trying to have some kind of—of—closure or something, for whatever it was we had.  More for him than for me.  I talked to him about it later, he understands—at least I hope he does.  I want him to be happy.  You remember what I told you in the dreamatorium?”  Abed nodded, seeming to relax a little.  “For me it was…more about the idea than the reality,” Annie continued.  “Maybe it helped to have that moment to wrap things up, but I knew that wasn’t the direction I was going anymore, if it ever had been.”

Abed nodded slowly.  “Sorry I made you think Jeff and Britta would be raising an anarchist baby.  I should have seen more of that.  The kiss and the surprise twist when you were about to reunite looked like a setup for a lot of relationship drama.  I underestimated your ability to transcend plot conventions.”

Annie grinned widely and hugged Abed again, recognizing that as one of the highest compliments she could receive from him.  Taking his hand, she led him towards the building.

“C’mon, let’s help Shirley unpack.”

“I almost forgot,” Abed added.  “Jeff and Britta should be here to see us in a few minutes, but they texted me about going to a bar in town later.  I thought I should plan on staying here to give you an excuse to avoid unnecessary exposure to their flirtation disguised as arguments, but if you’re OK with the two of them…”

“That’s sweet, Abed.”  She thought about it for a minute.  “I don’t really need to listen to them bickering all evening.”

Abed smiled slightly.  “It’s better this way.  We can walk around, see the ocean.  It’ll set the scene for Troy’s triumphant return.”  Hands clasped together, they headed up the stairs to meet Shirley.


	5. Applications of Marine Biology

As it turned out, they spent quite a bit of the evening with Jeff and Britta anyway.  As soon as the two of them arrived, Shirley had wanted to give them a tour of her place.  The apartment was near the top of the building, with beautiful views over the water and surprisingly tasteful décor given that it had once been Pierce’s.  Once there, Shirley insisted on making dinner for everyone, and then Britta and Jeff started giving the others a full account of the summer’s events at Greendale (enrollment was up, Frankie wanted Abed to direct a new commercial for the school, and the Dean was wondering if Troy’s voyage would draw press attention and possibly interviews in which he could mention his alma mater).  By the time they went downstairs to get a taxi to the bar, the sun was setting, the shadow of the apartment building extending far out over the ocean.

Soon afterwards, Annie and Abed walked out to see the beach.  It had been crowded when Abed was there before, but now, at dusk, the scene was peaceful.  Annie ran to the shoreline, kicked off her shoes, and let the waves wash over her feet.  Abed watched for a moment, then walked over to join her.  When an incoming wave splashed them with water, they jumped backwards, laughing.  As the two of them climbed back toward the dunes, Annie remember to ask Abed what his plans were when he returned to Greendale—she’d been distracted by his warning earlier, and then the others had been there.

“I’m reenrolling to take more film classes, but I’ll have a light schedule with time to do some directing work,” Abed replied.  “If I do that new commercial for Greendale, Frankie can introduce me to some local advertising firms I could work with.  Creative control will be a problem, but I can save some money to invest in my own films.”

Annie nodded and was about to reply, but Abed looked like he was going to say something more and she hesitated.  At that moment, Shirley appeared on the walkway across the sand dunes.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but if we leave now I can show you a place with great views of the sunset,” she announced.  Abed and Annie turned to follow, neither pursuing their previous conversation.

 

Annie got up early the next morning, awakened by the bright sunlight streaming through the windows of Shirley’s guest room.  Abed, jet-lagged after his flight from Los Angeles, had stayed up later than her and Shirley to watch TV, but Annie still found the door to the adjacent room where he was staying open and the bed empty.  Shirley said he’d gone out, so after breakfast Annie headed straight for the elevators and walked outside.  The weather was more unsettled than the day before, thunderclouds building up inland, but the skies were still clear over the ocean. 

She found Abed sitting on the beach, staring out to sea.  Squinting against the glare from the sun, he looked past the surf and the seagulls overhead, watching the horizon where calm water faded into hazy sky.  Without a word, Annie sat down next to him and he reached out to take her hand.  The gesture seemed natural and was nothing new to them, but Annie somehow found herself acutely aware of the contact.  The two of them sat there for a while, not speaking, both knowing they weren’t just here for the view.  They watched intently as a white speck came into view up the coast, becoming recognizable as a sail as it approached, but the boat attached to it was smaller than Troy’s.  Anyway, their friend would be approaching from the open sea, not following the shoreline.

“He’s out there somewhere.  It won’t be long,” Annie said softly.

“I know,” Abed replied.  “But it doesn’t feel safe until it’s done.”

Annie leaned against him comfortingly.  “I worry about him too.  But it’s still a few days until he thought he’d be here.  This is the return of the Greendale Seven, we can’t spend the whole time waiting.  Troy has to wait to show up for optimal dramatic timing, right?” she joked.  “We can do a montage of beach activities until then.”

Abed turned to face her, impressed.  “You’re right, Annie.  And I see you’ve been honing your cinematic analysis skills.  Maybe you could look over some of my scripts with me later?  Ironically, I couldn’t get much advice in Hollywood because everyone was so busy.”

Annie beamed at him, delighted.  As close as they were, it was still rare for Abed to let her in on an unfinished project like that.  The idea seemed to represent a new kind of intimacy for them.  Annie again reminded herself not to let her mind wander too much in that direction.  This was not the time to do anything that could alter their relationship.  Reluctantly letting go of Abed’s hand, she got up and led the way back to Shirley’s building.

 

The wave loomed over him, higher and steeper than the breakers that had preceded it, closing in too fast to avoid.  It crashed down on his head, throwing him sideways.  The jarring impact with the sandy bottom came a second later.

Abed stood up, brushing sand off his bathing suit, as the remnants of the wave surged up the beach.  As it turned out, a community college swimming class in Colorado wasn’t much help in learning to bodysurf.  Annie and Shirley, wading through the surf a few yards away, looked on with mild concern.

“Are you all right, Abed?” Annie asked.  “You had a pretty rough landing that time.”

“Yeah, you never know what could happen when you try to ride a three-foot wave,” Jeff put in from the blanket on which he and Britta were lying in the sun.  All three women gave him offended looks.

“I’m fine,” Abed answered, ignoring the sarcastic comment.  “This isn’t much like the pool at Greendale, but it also isn’t like _The Perfect Storm_.  Or _Poseidon Adventure_ or _Kickpuncher: Hawaii_.”  He didn’t pay Jeff’s usual snarkiness much attention; it was true to his character and probably had a lot to do with the law teacher’s own reluctance to go in the water.  Seeing a gap between the waves, Abed dove back into the sea and swam out past the breakers.  Out here he could swim more easily.  He heard splashing behind him and saw that Annie had followed.

“I’ll race you,” she challenged.

They proved to be evenly matched, swimming side-by-side most of the way.  Not having thought to choose a finish line, they just stopped when they got tired and called it a draw.  They had gone further out than Abed realized, the rolling swells almost blocking the view of the beach.  In the other direction, bright blue water extended to the horizon.  He wondered if Troy was seeing a similar view right now.  When he turned around, he saw Annie heading back towards the shore, and started to follow her.

When he kicked downwards, his foot made contact with something solid and smooth that was not the sandy seafloor.

Abruptly reminded of _Jaws_ , Abed sprang forward as quickly as he could.  Hearing him splashing, Annie turned around.  Abed gestured for her to go on to the beach; instead she swam back to him.  Abed realized he should have accounted more for her need to help others, though he didn’t know what would have persuaded her to get to safety.  A huge dark shape loomed up in the water just a few feet away.

The head that broke the surface was not pointed and toothy, but oddly rectangular with gentle eyes, connected to a body that resembled a hippopotamus.  The creature floated calmly, watching the alarmed swimmers.  The initial shock wearing off, they stopped fleeing to look more closely.

“A manatee,” Abed said, remembering a nature documentary with some impressive underwater cinematography.  “That’s fortunate.  It would be a bad sign if we had to literally jump the shark.”  Annie grabbed hold of his arm and laughed with nervous relief.  The two of them and the strange animal watched each other intently for a few moments, then the manatee dove back under the water and slowly swam away.

When Annie and Abed turned back towards land, the others were waiting in the shallows, having seen the manatee emerge and waded out to get a closer look.  Even Jeff had finally ventured in up to his knees.  As they all stood together, watching the ocean in hopes of getting another glimpse of the creature, the study group felt more intact to Abed than it had in years.  Maybe it was just the knowledge that Troy would soon join them.  He wondered how long it would be after this week before they were all together again.  Shirley’s father still needed her, and he hadn’t even asked Annie what she was doing next.

Though there was a lot going on to distract them both, Abed had to admit to himself that the real reason was that he wasn’t sure he wanted to know yet.


	6. The Psychology of Paintball

Abed was pretty sure the other members of the study group didn’t really get _Virtually Real_ , but they applauded loudly when the credits rolled just the same.  There was still no date set for the show to air, but the producers had given out advance copies of the first couple of episodes to everyone who worked on them.  Rather than wait for the network to regret cancelling the show, Abed had invited his friends to watch it with him when a rainstorm drove them away from the beach.  Jeff had made a few sarcastic comments, Shirley remained skeptical of postmodernism, Annie was supportive but looked bemused, and Britta had been enthusiastically complimentary but clearly misunderstood some of the jokes she was praising.  Still, Abed was glad to have a chance to show them the results of his summer job.  Troy would be the one to properly appreciate it when he got to see it.

When the episode was finished, Annie and Jeff followed Shirley into the kitchen, listening to her account of one of the mysteries she had helped solve.  Abed was about to join them, hoping to get a clearer picture of Shirley’s spinoff series, but Britta cornered him first.

“So, Abed,” she asked.  “You’ve got a lot going on, what with your career plans falling through, Troy coming back, and seeing all of us for the first time in months.  I know we haven’t had a therapy session in a long time, but if you need to talk about it, I’m always here.  I mean, I’m going out to dinner later but I’ll have time if you need to talk to me in my professional capacity.”

Abed’s first instinct was to dismiss the offer.  Not only had he not needed Britta’s services as an unlicensed psychology major in a long time, but Troy’s return was an unambiguously positive event, not something he required help dealing with.  Still, something stopped him from refusing immediately.  With so many of the Greendale Seven having drifted away, he still feared for their long-term future.  When she stopped repeating poorly understood psychology jargon, Britta could be an insightful observer of the study group, picking up emotional issues Abed struggled to figure out.  It might be good to get her advice.  Besides, a reunion episode should have frequent callbacks to old character dynamics, right?

“I can meet you on the balcony in half an hour,” Abed said, walking past Britta towards the kitchen.

 

As the clouds dissipated after the rain, the balcony outside Abed’s room overlooked a sea dappled with patches of sunlight.  Abed focused on the distant water, uncomfortable with Britta’s questions.

“Abed?” she repeated.  “Do you have any fears about seeing Troy again?  About how he might have changed, anything like that?”

He reluctantly turned to face her.  “Not really,” he answered.  “A big adventure like this will come with a lot of character development, but our friendship is too strong to be threatened by that.  It’ll be great.  I’ve been saving up lots of cool ideas for things we can do that wouldn’t work without Troy.”

Britta took a moment to write something in her notebook.  “Hmm,” she began, drawing out her response for drama.  “Abed, I know there’s no substitute for your relationship with Troy, but I wonder if you’ve been avoiding involving the rest of us in your cool ideas?  We’ve talked about your fear of people leaving you, and I have to ask if you might have reacted to Troy’s absence by distancing yourself a little as a defense—“

“I’ve had lots of adventures with you guys,” Abed cut in impatiently.  “But you don’t all appreciate the power of imagination the way Troy does.  There’s lots of scenarios only the two of us could do.”

“Annie likes your imaginary scenarios.  I’ve seen you doing _Inspector Spacetime_ reenactments in the apartment.”

“Annie’s great at that,” he allowed.  “But she doesn’t have as much time for it as Troy.  And I have to be careful.  We can’t have too many paintball incidents without messing with the dynamics of the study group.”

“Too many what now?”  Britta asked.

Abed winced inwardly.  He hadn’t meant to let that information slip out.  “Nothing important.  Just a callback.”

“You two were so excited about the last paintball game, I never thought there was something wrong—“

“It’s nothing wrong.  And not even about that game.”

“Right, we were talking about your movie scenarios.  Must be something to do with your Han Solo impression in the big paintball war.  What happened?”

“It was an in-character moment, it’s not relevant.  All I’m saying is it’s a lot simpler to do that stuff with Troy than anyone else,” Abed said, trying to divert her from the subject of the second Greendale paintball game.  To his relief, Britta shrugged and asked him more about Troy.

 

As she studied the screenplay for _Time-osaurs 2_ , the sounds of an old sitcom rerun permeating the living room, Annie grinned contentedly.  With Shirley out for a walk and Jeff and Britta at a restaurant, she and Abed had the place to themselves, and if she ignored the unfamiliar setting it felt like a normal evening at their apartment in Greendale.  Reaching the end of the script, she stretched out on the couch and waited for a commercial break.  When it came, she walked over to the armchair where Abed sat.

“This is really good,” she announced.  “I think you wrote the perfect role for Troy, he’s going to love it.”

“We have to show him the original first.  That’s the first thing on my schedule of movies to watch when he gets back.”

“You have a schedule?” Annie asked, amused.

“Of course.  Troy’s been isolated from new developments in pop culture for more than a year.  We’re going to have to prioritize the most urgent things to catch up on.  I’m thinking _Time-osaurs_ and a couple of my short documentaries about the study group to show him what we’ve been up to, then a marathon of the new _Inspector Spacetime_ season, then some recent movie hits and—“

“Well, make sure you don’t overwhelm Troy by doing all that at once.  You’ll need some time to talk about his trip.”

“Don’t worry, this is a long-term plan.  But I’m hoping to watch _Time-osaurs_ this week.  I want to film the ending scene for the sequel here.  It’s a little weird to start with the last scene, but the tropical vegetation will make the Jurassic setting more convincing.”

“I’d love to do that,” Annie agreed.  The script ended with the characters played by Troy and Abed traveling through a portal to the Jurassic and meeting her character, who had set out to observe dinosaurs in their natural habitat at the end of the first movie.  “Can we practice our lines together sometime?”

“Sure,” Abed replied.  He turned off the TV.

“The episode’s not over!”  Annie blurted out, startled.

“I’ve seen it before.  I didn’t realize you were watching.”

“Oh, I wasn’t really.”  Rerun or not, it was highly unusual for Abed to stop watching mid-episode.  Flattered that her request apparently warranted such immediate attention, she grabbed the script and opened it to the final scene.  “OK, let’s rehearse, then.”

Abed got up, went to his room, and returned a moment later wearing a backpack, safari hat, and fake mustache.  Of course he had made sure to bring a suitable costume on vacation.  He gestured to a potted plant in the corner; Annie hid behind it as a substitute for the prehistoric jungle she was supposed to emerge from.  “Start rustling the leaves,” Abed instructed.  Annie shook the plant a bit, careful not to scatter dirt on the floor.  “Over there!” Abed cried, effortlessly getting into character.  “Not nearly big enough to be an adult _Allosaurus_ , but even a small ceratosaur might want us as a snack.”

“Stay behind me,” Abed replied to himself, now imitating the voice of Troy playing an elite Special Forces officer commanding the government’s top-secret time-travel squad.  “And pass me the tranquilizer darts.”  Recognizing her cue, Annie stepped out from behind the plant.

“Dr. Hawthorne!” she greeted Abed’s character.  “How did you get through the portal?”

“We were hoping to find you here, Dr. Pierce,” he replied (the leads in the first movie had been named after their late friend).  “My research has uncovered a way to make time travel more reliable—after a few more dinosaur incidents.  We came here to investigate the source of the time breach.”

“You need to see what I discovered,” Annie announced.  “If we don’t do something, we’re going to have a much bigger problem than dinosaur attacks.”

“OK, cut.  That’s the cliffhanger to set up the third movie.”

“How was that?” Annie asked.

“Good.  But I’m wondering if it’s too short a scene.  I might need to add some dialogue.  I’m not sure what, though.  Any ideas?”

“Well—“ Annie brushed her hair out of her face—“Our characters got pretty close in the first movie, and now they’ve been millions of years apart for weeks and weeks.  Maybe we should spend more time reacting to seeing each other again?”

Abed nodded.  “Good thinking.  Want to improvise something now?  I can refine the dialogue before we film.”

Annie hid behind the plant again and they quickly ran through the beginning of the scene.  This time, when she greeted Abed she ran over and hugged him.  “I could tell the dinosaurs had broken through the portal again, I didn’t know if you were safe but there was no way to warn you!” she exclaimed.  _Was that too melodramatic?_ Annie wondered.  But Abed seemed willing to go along with it.

“And what about you?” he replied.  “You’ve been out here alone for so long, anything could have happened.”  Annie looked up at Abed, suddenly noticing how close together their faces were.

“I’m here now,” she said, struggling to come up with more dialogue to keep the scene going.  Instead Abed gently shifted his hand to the back of her neck and leaned towards her.  Annie slowly moved forward to meet him.

Before their lips touched, the door swung open.  Britta walked in with an expression of incredulous amusement.  “Oh, _wow_ ,” she exclaimed.  “Oh, this explains so much.”

“So much about what?  What’s happening?”  Annie heard Jeff’s voice from the hallway.  She remained frozen in shock, while Abed retreated back to his armchair.

“Well, this little scene connects some dots that give me a much better understanding of— _doctor-patient confidentiality_ ,” Britta said, belatedly looking embarrassed at her lack of discretion.

Jeff walked in, seeming understandably confused since there was now nothing particularly unusual to see except Abed’s costume.  “What was that about?”

“I told you, I plead the fifth!”

“The fifth amendment isn’t about doctor-patient confidentiality!”

“Guys, we were just rehearsing for Abed’s next movie!” Annie said, finally able to speak.  She turned to Abed.  “You know, I think the original script is fine.  I should go to bed, it’s been a big day.  Goodnight!”  She retreated to her room and closed the door, angry with herself.  She had told herself not to do anything to disrupt their friendship, and then she walked straight into a romantic scenario at the first opportunity.  Still, it was Abed who had first moved to kiss her… _don’t think like that, it was in-character, you don’t even know if he feels that way in real life_.  As she fell asleep, she struggled to keep her mind away from her feelings in that moment and the memory of paintball.


	7. Limitations of Virtual Systems

It was difficult for Annie to believe they were just a few blocks from the expensive beachfront apartment where they were staying.  The land down the coast from Shirley’s condo and on the bay shore behind the building was set aside as a nature preserve, leaving an expanse of dense woodland and tidal creeks across the street from crowded neighborhoods.  Abed had been right: the tangle of shrubs and palm trees that surrounded the little trail they were following would make a perfect backdrop for a scene set in the Jurassic.  At the moment, however, with their co-star still at sea, the swamp only had to pass for the eighteenth century.

“This way, Geneva,” Abed called from further down the path.  “And have the quantum spanner ready.  The timeline may depend on those pirates escaping the navy’s trap, but that doesn’t mean we can trust them.  If they manage to steal future technology, history could get much more topsy-turvy than it already has.”

Neither of them had spoken about their improvisations in the movie rehearsal the previous evening.  Annie was still worried about making things awkward, but Abed had invited her to join him scouting for filming locations without any obvious sign that anything was off.  Annie was relieved that they could go back to normal—but she still struggled to suppress a feeling of irritation that Abed hadn’t reacted more strongly.  After finding some good spots to film the ending of _Time-osaurs 2_ , Abed had suggested an _Inspector Spacetime_ simulation.  Annie worried that running more scenarios would add tension to the situation, but she assumed that if Abed was concerned about it at all he saw the familiar subject matter as something that would help restore equilibrium.  This was less likely to have romantic overtones than the movie, right?  In any case, once she got into character as Constable Geneva Annie felt more relaxed.  The silly storyline about time-traveling aliens interfering with history and the exotic landscape were good distractions from trying to figure out where her relationship with Abed stood.

The trail led down a gentle incline, the little trees on either side getting taller and closer together.  Around a bend, a narrow creek came into view, the water flowing slowly between muddy banks.  Off to their left, the stream tapered off into standing water among the half-submerged trunks of mangroves.  Beyond there were the open waters of a small cove that opened into the bay.

“There’s the ship,” Abed announced, pointing towards the cove.  Where there had been only a motorboat in the distance, Annie pictured a pirate ship under full sail, bristling with simulated cannons.  She waded into the shallow waters of the creek to get a better view of the bay.  Even this warm and murky water felt refreshing compared to the hot, humid air.  “The soldiers are waiting in rowboats upriver, ready to ambush the pirates the moment they drop anchor.  We must find some way to stop that from happening.”

“That seems easy enough,” Annie said hopefully.  “If we create some kind of disturbance on shore, they’ll get suspicious and sail away, won’t they?”

“It may not be that simple,” Abed cautioned.  “The pirates or the navy or both might decide to investigate, the aliens will be watching to make sure their scheme succeeds, and there’s an alligator heading for you.”

Annie smiled with amused self-satisfaction.  It wasn’t often one got a chance to correct Abed about the details of a science-fiction scenario.  “Why, Inspector, surely you’ve forgotten that the Caribbean islands where pirates roam are inhabited by crocodiles, not—“

“Annie!  _Alligator_.”

Finally glancing down at the water, Annie saw a twelve-foot, decidedly non-simulated reptile drifting slowly down the channel towards her feet.  She quickly jumped to the bank and retreated to where Abed stood, a safe distance from the water.  She grabbed his hand nervously, although the alligator did nothing particularly alarming, stopping to float calmly in a deep pool a few feet upstream from where she had stood.  Annie and Abed stood there and watched in silence for a couple of minutes, until the animal turned around and disappeared in the brush upstream.  Annie realized she was leaning against Abed and backed away, missing the sensation but wary of embarrassing herself again.  Abed looked at her with an alert expression, seeming to take careful note of her movements, but spoke only to suggest that they resume the simulation and devise a plan that could be executed entirely on dry land.  _I wonder if drawing attention to ourselves might be a good plan after all?_   Annie thought, contemplating a new strategy to save history.

 

By the time the pirates, navy, and aliens had all joined in a four-sided battle with the Inspector and Geneva, Abed was realizing he hadn’t given Annie enough credit for her skills in rendering scenarios.  Her suggestions for new plans had led them into a much more epic adventure than he initially envisioned.  He thought her improvisations would have improved the ending of _Time-osaurs 2_ , as well; but it was a bad idea to dwell on that.  However right it might seem when in-character, moments like that were too risky for their friendship.  Even if she was over Jeff as she claimed, any romantic connection between him and Annie seemed to violate the usual tropes.  And he had observed her hesitancy with him today; that presumably meant she regretted almost kissing him the night before.

Trying to forget the subject, Abed turned his mind to potential endings for their current scenario.  There were several strategies that the Inspector could use to get out of the situation, but they seemed too simple for the conclusion of such an exciting episode.  Besides, Annie had earned the starring role in this one.

As he dueled an imaginary pirate with a stick that could pass for a sword, Abed intentionally stumbled over a tree root.  Falling to the ground, he clutched his right shoulder.  Annie gasped and ran over to him, easily chasing off his foe.  She knelt beside him.

“Geneva!  I’m wounded.  You need to get to the alien spaceship and activate the self-destruct mechanism.  That will force them to teleport back to their space station and ensure no future technology is left here.”

Annie nodded determinedly.  “I’ll do whatever it takes, Inspector.”

“Don’t you mean _whenever_ it takes?”

“Wait, what?  That doesn’t make sense.”

“Okay, I may have stretched the catchphrase too far.”

Annie sprang into action, fighting her way through the battle and onto the spaceship.  As the self-destruct system counted down, she ran for shelter.  Abed was impressed by her decision to take cover behind a tree that kept her out of his line of sight; it added dramatic tension if the Inspector couldn’t see that Geneva was safe.  After the spaceship exploded and the pirates and soldiers retreated, she leapt out and ran back to him.  Leaning down, she clutched his hand.

“Inspector!  Are you all right?”

“I’ll soon be as good as new, Constable,” Abed replied, slowly standing up and brushing off some ants that had crawled onto him.  Running scenarios on-location offered some excellent visuals, but it involved complications not found in the old Dreamatorium.  “You know I can heal faster than a human.  But what about you?  If I’d known the device would activate so quickly, I’d never have let you do that.”

Annie smiled with relief.  “Then you shouldn’t scare me like that again.  I might do something reckless.”  She raised a hand to his cheek and moved closer, staring at him.  Seeing where this scene was heading, Abed scrambled to recalibrate his assessment of recent events.  This was a major deviation from _Inspector Spacetime_ canon, and threw off all his assumptions about the aftermath of last night’s rehearsal.  Abed considered calling off the simulation before things got out of hand.  Instead he found himself once again leaning slowly towards Annie.

A tremendous explosion jolted them out of the scene.

Engrossed in the simulation, the two of them had failed to notice the building storm clouds looming over them.  Lightning flashed, followed quickly by another loud thunderclap.  Annie and Abed, still just inches apart, exchanged an awkward glance, then turned to run from the storm as the rain began to fall.

 

By the time the two of them dashed across a flooded street and into the lobby of Shirley’s building, the storm had arrived in full force and they were soaking wet.  Abed stood a few feet away from Annie in the elevator, not sure how to react to any of this when not in character.  No one answered when they knocked on Shirley’s door, but Annie had made sure to bring the spare key.  Abed found a note on the kitchen table— _I’m showing Jeff and Britta the sights downtown.  Be back late tonight.  There are leftovers in the fridge for you._   “They’re out for the day,” he announced.

“Good.  We left some things unfinished there.”

“I know we never officially ended the simulation.  Do you want to pick up the story after a time jump?”  Abed adjusted his bowler hat.

“No, I want to talk to Abed.”

“OK, end simulation.”  He removed the hat.

“Why do we do this?” Annie asked sharply.

“Rendering imaginated dreamscapes is a way to exercise our creativity and experience any fictional world we want.”  Abed suspected he wasn’t answering the right question, but he didn’t know how to explain the end of that storyline and the potential consequences were alarming.

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about!”  Apparently a diversion wouldn’t be possible.  “Paintball, last night, now this—I keep thinking I’ll mess everything up by getting too involved, but then why do we keep doing things like that?”

Abed stood still, frantically trying to assess Annie’s motivation in this scene.  It sounded as if, contrary to his calculations, she really thought they could—but that was too risky.  “These scenarios can get pretty intense,” he replied cautiously.  “If they’re putting strain on our friendship when we’re not in character, maybe we need to be more careful—“

“You know what, Abed, never mind.  I get the idea, the context demanded it, endangering the fabric of the study group, whatever.  I should’ve known better than to bring it up.”  Her expression looked like it had when she threatened to leave Greendale over their planned attack ad against a dog last semester—or maybe more like when she punched Jeff way back at the start of their second year.  Abed had been uncharacteristically furious at Jeff for the damage he’d done in that episode; was he now doing the same thing himself?  But nothing as dramatic happened this time.  Instead Annie just turned away and walked out the door without another word.


	8. Interpretation of Romantic History

Lightning flashed out over the sea, the rain running down the bedroom window blurring the image.  Abed hoped Troy was out of the path of the storm, though he knew his friend had made it through far worse weather already.  Feeling just a little bit short of a season 3-style catatonic state, he tried to make sense of what had happened between him and Annie.

Abed didn’t want things to go this way, of course.  What was more, he couldn’t deny that everything that had happened in their recent simulations felt right.  He’d known all summer what his lingering over the scenes he’d filmed with his roommate signified for his character development.  And Annie had subverted his expectations every step of the way: she had avoided a clear setup for romantic drama with Jeff, had guided Abed into those scenarios, had clearly not wanted to hear his attempt to dismiss what had happened.  But their connection was unconventional; Abed didn’t have a good reference point to understand how it could succeed.  And Abed couldn’t see much reason to trust in his own ability to make a close relationship work.  He’d watched plenty of people leave him already.  He sat on the bed and stared out the window, watching the ocean, remembering Annie reaching out to him in the Dreamatorium, kissing him in a rain of orange paint, holding his hand while they watched a movie.

Troy was out there, across that expanse of water, no longer so far away.  Troy was coming back.  Somehow that changed everything else.

Abed got up and headed for the door.

 

Annie stood under the awning outside the apartment building’s lobby, as far from the scene of their argument as she could get without venturing back into the rain.  _Why did I do that?_ she wondered.  But she knew the answer; as much as she’d wanted to avoid any strain on her friendship with Abed, seeing him again after missing his presence all summer had left her unable to ignore the fact that it wasn’t just a matter of friendship for her.  Their two near-kisses had simply been a breaking point.  But it wasn’t fair to expect Abed to share her feelings.  She knew how committed he was to playing different roles as the story required; how could she assume anything about their relationship based on what he did in-character?  Annie turned back towards the building, struggling to make up her mind to go back and try to repair things.  Before she could, the door opened.  Abed stepped out and walked over to her.

She wanted to take his hand, stand closer to him, but instead she stayed where she was.  “Abed, I shouldn’t have acted like that.  I guess I’ve been reading into things again.”

“No,” he answered quietly.  “You haven’t.  Running scenarios, playing characters, it’s not just an awesome gimmick, it’s how I express things I don’t know how to deal with as myself.  Even things I don’t quite understand yet.  Annie, I think I’ve been keeping you at arm’s length—I always thought of myself as the observer in the group, and I just assumed you saw me the same way.  I rely on TV and movies to figure these things out, and I’m not the kind of character that would usually end up with you.  And since Troy left, it’s been harder to trust that a close relationship would last.”  Seeing his pained expression, Annie stepped forward and softly touched his arm.  “All that time we lived together, I knew it was something special, but we didn’t fit the usual conventions.  But I can see now that we have our own kind of chemistry, and that just makes it all the more compelling.  If my story arc became more complex than being an observer, I wouldn’t be a very good filmmaker if I ignored it.”

Annie thought she understood now.  She came another inch closer, overwhelmed with emotion.  But she had to be sure.  “Abed, what are you saying?  What does this story arc mean for us right now?”

He tentatively stretched out a hand.  “What it means right now is up to you.  The things that happened in those simulations were real to me.  If you want, if you’re sure about this, I think we should explore what that connection means without the crutch of playing characters.”

“Yes,” Annie murmured.  “I want this.”  She thought for a second.  “But we can still run scenarios sometimes, right?”

“Of course.  We need to follow up on that _Inspector Spacetime_ storyline.  We may have veered into fanfiction territory there, but the possibilities for the characters are intriguing.”

Annie smiled brightly and finally closed the distance between them.

“Is that a kiss lean?” Abed asked.

“Do you want it to be?”

Instead of replying, Abed closed his eyes and leaned down to her face.  But at the last second, Annie stepped back, realizing there was still something she needed to get out there before she could be sure they were doing the right thing.  “Wait, Abed.  Before this goes further, I need to tell you something.”

 

Abed watched her nervously, wondering what the new development would be.  He had a bad feeling he already knew.  As perfect as the moment seemed, he hadn’t forgotten there was one unresolved plot thread that left their long-term prospects doubtful.

“My internship with the FBI just ended, and I never got around to telling you about my plans, I guess I thought you had enough to deal with what with Troy coming back…”

There it was, then.

“I’ve accepted another internship, with the county sheriff’s department.”

OK, he hadn’t seen that one coming.  “Plot twist,” Abed muttered.  “Is this some kind of Western homage?  You were pretty awesome in that paintball game, but it would be a big genre shift for the long term.”

Annie chuckled.  “The _Greendale County_ sheriff’s department.  Their office is right across the street from campus, we used to walk by it every day.”  Abed tilted his head and watched her hesitantly.  “I’m coming home,” she added, seeming to sense his uncertainty.

“You’re not staying with the FBI?  You were so excited about working there…”

She nodded thoughtfully.  “It was a great experience.  I learned a lot about detective work.  But while I was there, I got involved in a little mystery of my own on the side.  The details aren’t important right now, but I realized, I want to get in the field, solve cases myself.  If I tried to stay at the Bureau, I’d have to spend years building my resume before they’d even let me into the training program, and the only internship they encouraged me to apply for was for lab work.  This way, I can start helping with real investigations while I take classes to finish my forensics degree and be on track for a detective position when I graduate.  And they have this community policing initiative that I have lots of ideas for—anyway, this will be better for me.  Also, I don’t think my side adventure made me many friends in the FBI.”

Abed was relieved that she wasn’t staying in Washington after all, but that last comment confused him.  “Why not?  I’m sure you’re a great detective already.  What would they object to?  Did you solve the case?”

Annie adjusted her hair and smiled sheepishly.  “I did,” she said, “but it was supposed to be _their_ case, and I had to go pretty off-book to do it.  I may have acquired a reputation as a loose cannon.  And I ended up making some influential people look bad.”

Abed stared at her, impressed.  “You conducted your own investigation under the nose of the feds and uncovered secrets the higher-ups wanted hidden?”

Now she was grinning with triumph.  “I even built my own Dreamatorium in a supply closet in the FBI building to reconstruct the crime scene.  The janitors are going to be really confused.”  Her expression became more serious.  “So anyway…I’m coming back.  I know our friendship the way it’s been up till now is important to both of us.  If you’re sure about this, Abed, then I’m with you, but if you have any concerns about how it would affect things—I just want to make sure you know everything before making any decisions—“

Abed leaned towards her again and their lips finally met.  The kiss was as long and passionate as their first, in the paintball game years ago, but this time there were no characters involved to complicate what it meant.  When they broke apart, Annie stepped back and out from under the awning into the storm, pulling Abed with her, and kissed him again.  After a moment, when she finally stopped long enough to speak, she said, “I thought kissing in the rain would make a better romantic moment if this were a movie.”

Abed smiled and stroked her face.  “That was perfect.  I’m expecting the sun to suddenly come out to symbolize our happiness.”  Instead there was a menacing rumble of thunder.  “On second thought, comedic subversion of the audience’s expectations is even better.”  He took Annie’s hand and led her back to the sheltered porch.  “I still don’t really know how to do this, I’m not sure what storytelling devices can explain it, but I know I want this to work,” he told her.

“I know.  It will.  I worried about the same things, whether we were too different from what I thought romance looked like.  But we care about each other, we know each other better than anyone, and that’s enough for me to trust that we can handle whatever life throws at us.  I mean, we’ve made it through six years at Greendale, right?”

“We can write our own story,” Abed mused.  “If it doesn’t fit the usual expectations, we’ll do something better.”

Annie nodded, squealed, and hugged him.  “Now what?” she asked.

“Well, conventional protocols would suggest that we go on a number of dates in various public places.  It could be good material for a montage.”

“Awww!  That’s sweet.”  Annie glanced away, then looked up tentatively as she stepped towards the door.  “Of course, we were talking about subverting conventions, and, well—we don’t have a car and it’s not exactly a good time to walk anywhere…so we’re kind of stuck here alone for a while…and we have already lived together for a few years…so maybe if we wanted to consider saving the montage for later…?”

Abed turned to follow her back towards the elevator.


	9. Subterfuge for Beginners

Annie was awakened early by the bright sunlight from the east-facing windows, with no sign of the previous day’s storm to be seen.  She kept her eyes closed, trying to hold on to a familiar dream, one she would be too embarrassed to think about when fully awake.

Remembering what had happened the day before, she started and opened her eyes.  This time it wasn’t a dream.

Abed lay on his side facing Annie.  He was already awake, watching her.  She rolled over to get closer and he reached out to touch her face.

“This would be a good moment to cut to in the PG-13 version,” he whispered.

Annie laughed.  “I’m glad we’re watching the director’s cut instead.”

“Annie?  Are you awake?  I made muffins for breakfast!”  Annie flinched at the sound of Shirley’s voice, seemingly right outside the bedroom door.  How could they not have planned for this?  She and Abed had fallen asleep before Shirley got back last night, but they should have realized the trouble they would be in when morning arrived.

“Just a minute!” Annie called nervously, glancing at Abed in panic.  “What do we do?” she asked him, belatedly being careful to whisper.

“We don’t have to tell the others now,” he replied, his voice reassuringly even.  “In fact, secret relationship plots are a staple when sitcom couples get together.  We’re supposed to eventually learn that it’s a bad idea to keep secrets from our close friends, but we can realize that when we’re not in the guest room of someone so judgmental about premarital relations.”

“Abed, she’s gonna notice us—“

“Wait.” He jumped out of bed almost silently and quickly pulled on his clothes.  Climbing back onto the bed, Abed bent to kiss Annie and opened the window above her.  In a few seconds he had scrambled out the window onto the balcony.

“You know, there’s a door over there,” Annie whispered, leaning out after him.

“Not as stealthy or as cinematic,” Abed informed her.  He walked over to the twin railings separating her balcony from the one outside his own room.  Annie watched nervously; the balconies _almost_ adjoined each other, but there was a gap of a few inches, just enough to induce vertigo even if it was too narrow to be actually dangerous.

“I should’ve brought my grappling hook,” Abed added.  Annie gasped in fear.  “That was a joke.  Did I forget to inflect again?”

“Not funny, Abed!”  To Annie’s relief, he climbed over the railings carefully and without incident.  Gaining the other balcony, he pushed the window to his room open and, in an impressive athletic display, used a chair as a footstool to get enough elevation to pull himself through.  Giggling, Annie carefully slid her window closed and got out of bed, searching for the clothes she’d abandoned yesterday.

A minute later, she walked into the kitchen and did her best to greet Shirley as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on.  Her friend didn’t make it as easy as she’d hoped.  “Where were you two yesterday?” Shirley inquired.  “You were out all morning and then you’d both gone to bed before we got back.”

“Oh, w—I just went to see some more of the surroundings.  And I was tired last night.  Not from doing anything in particular, it’s just jet lag.  I mean not jet lag because we drove here and haven’t changed time zones.  It’s the weather.  I’m not used to how hot it is here.  Probably not Abed either, but I wouldn’t know.  Even with the air conditioning—“

To her relief, Abed emerged from his room before Shirley, already looking at her quizzically, could ask why she was rambling.  “Annie helped me scout for filming locations,” he explained calmly.  “We had a good _Inspector Spacetime_ reenactment going, but we got caught in the storm and had to run back here.”

Shirley chuckled and whispered across the table to Annie.  “You don’t have to feel embarrassed about playing pretend with Abed.  You should see what I get up to with Ben.  Since you’re both going back to Greendale, maybe you two should babysit him sometime.”

Annie couldn’t help but be annoyed by the suggestion that their epic simulation would be cause for embarrassment, but she held her tongue, knowing she was lucky not to have incited further suspicion with her shaky cover story.  Instead she settled for rolling her eyes at Abed.  Through the open bedroom door behind him, she noticed that he had pulled the covers partway off his bed to create the illusion that it had been slept in.  _If we’re doing this secret relationship thing, I’d better ask Abed to explain some sitcom tactics to me.  Improvising isn’t going to cut it with another amateur detective around.  And Britta was already getting suspicious._

 

As the three of them waited for Jeff and Britta on the beach, Abed considered the ways this scenario could play out.  As he’d assured Annie, sitcom storytelling usually demanded that such a situation be resolved fairly easily after some comical attempts to evade discovery, but he still privately felt nervous about how their relationship would affect the group dynamic when it became known to the others.  Not that most of them would disapprove; while she would likely not have reacted well if she’d discovered them in bed this morning, Shirley would probably be delighted if simply told they were dating.  Britta’s self-congratulatory reaction to having her recent suspicions confirmed would be annoying, but in this case she had earned it.  It was really just Jeff who concerned Abed.  Though he’d been wrong to assume that Annie was still hung up on their relationship, Abed doubted Jeff felt the same way, and however close he was with Abed the group’s leader did not handle jealousy well.  Maybe they needed a plan to mitigate his reaction.

As Shirley laid out a towel on the sand, Annie glanced at Abed and walked closer to the waves.  Abed wasn’t good at recognizing social cues, but he knew an opportunity for covert scheming when he saw one.  He followed her down to the water’s edge, reflexively scanning the horizon.  No sign of Troy.  It was still a day or two before he was expected to arrive.

“I need some help with this secret-keeping stuff,” Annie whispered, glancing around to make sure Shirley wasn’t watching too closely.  “How do TV characters cover up their relationships?”

“Well, I can give you some examples but the truth is, we shouldn’t worry too much about it.  These plots are designed to have comically implausible excuses that quickly get exposed.  It might be better to just plan on telling the others soon, and get our stories straight anytime we sneak off together before then.”  Abed thought for a moment.  “Sometimes one character discovers the secret first and helps the couple, like when Joey knew about Monica and Chandler’s relationship on _Friends_.  We might consider telling one of the others ahead of time, and they could help us manage any fallout when the rest of the group finds out.”

Annie nodded.  “Who would we tell?  Shirley or Britta?”

“Has to be Britta.  Shirley will want to tell people right away.  Britta saw us rehearsing, so she’ll be proud of herself for guessing there was something going on between us and enjoy being the only one who knows.”

Annie thought about it for a minute.  “If we tell her, maybe she could deal with Jeff when he finds out.  Just—I don’t know, have a big date planned or something to distract him.  I don’t want this turn into a big crisis, or feel like I’m coming between you two, you know?”

Seeing that Shirley was facing away from them, Abed reached over to touch Annie’s cheek, hoping the gesture was reassuring.  “I’m worried about that too, but some things just have to play out.  Remember when Jeff attacked me in a pile of Frisbees to stop me from editing one of his scenes out of my movie?  The study group survived a whole lot of things like that, we’ll get through this one too.”

Annie smiled.  “They’re here,” she announced, pointing up the beach to where Shirley was greeting Jeff and Britta.  As she started towards them, she brushed Abed’s hand for a moment.  Abed followed her, somehow feeling more confident about the future than he had a minute ago.


	10. Maritime Navigation

It was hours past dusk when Jeff and Britta left Shirley’s condo that evening, Annie watching impatiently as she tried to look relaxed.  It had been a perfect day at the beach, with beautiful weather; they had stayed by the water until Shirley brought them all back to her place for dinner. 

All five of them, together.  She and Abed couldn’t get a moment alone.

Ironically, after her protestations to Abed when they first reunited, Annie now found herself jealous of Britta.  Not about Jeff or their relationship, longer-established but more commitment-phobic than her own new romance, but about the pair’s private motel room.  Shirley quickly said goodnight and went to her own bedroom, finally leaving Annie and Abed alone, but they knew their friend was just a few feet away.

Abed sat on the armchair, writing notes on the margins of his script.  Annie pretended to read on the couch, repeatedly glancing between Abed and the door to Shirley’s room.  Finally, after enough time had passed that she guessed Shirley would be asleep, Annie dared to walk over to Abed and whisper a plan in his ear.

A few minutes later, they stood by the front door, Annie holding a towel, listening carefully for any activity in the apartment.  She watched, again admiring Abed’s talent for stealth, as he opened and closed the door with hardly any sound.  The two walked out into the hall and, assured that they had been as careful as possible, took the elevator down to the lobby and headed for the beach.

With the streetlights hidden behind the dunes, the stars were bright and clear against a dark sky over the ocean.  The waves had been growing larger over the evening; with the water almost invisible, the breakers sounded formidable, making the ocean seem wild and vast and not a place for tourists.  Annie and Abed followed the narrow line of sand south, away from the tall buildings, until they reached the undeveloped stretch of beach where the glow of lights from inland disappeared.  When they were well past the last buildings, they climbed up the dunes, navigating as much by the feel of the ground and the sound of the waves as by sight.  The undisturbed dunes here were wider and higher than those near the apartment building.  Once she was sure they were out of reach of the waves, Annie found a flat spot and laid the towel on the sand.  As they sat down, she leaned over to slowly kiss Abed.

 

A while later, Annie pulled her clothes back on and nestled next to Abed, looking up at the stars.  She was about to reluctantly suggest that they head back and get some sleep when she felt him tense up, sitting up abruptly to face the sea.

“Abed?  What is it?” she asked, but she could already see.

With her eyes growing more accustomed to the darkness, the white foam where the waves broke on the beach was clearly visible, but the deep waters beyond were distinguishable from the night sky only by the lack of stars.  Along most of the horizon, the dark surface of the water was unbroken, but straight ahead, a long way out, lights glowed where there had recently been none.  They were faint, one red and one green, just specks over the water.  As Annie watched, they disappeared for a second as a swell rose up in front of them.

She sat next to Abed and they watched silently.  Within a few minutes, it became clear that the lights were drawing closer to the beach.  As they approached, a ghostly shape appeared in the air above—a sail, pushed forward by the gentle breeze.  Eventually Annie could glimpse the hull of the boat, the attached running lights revealing a familiar deep blue color with a yellow line.  And then, when it looked like the vessel was just outside the surf, there was a distant clinking sound followed by a splash, and the boat stopped moving.  Annie stood up and shouted, but she could hear no reply over the waves.

Abed was already running down to the water.

Annie caught up to him ankle-deep in the Atlantic, each new wave splashing their legs.  They both yelled and jumped up and down, but there was still no response.  From this lower vantage point, the ship no longer seemed quite so close; the waves, while perhaps only a bit bigger than the ones they had been swimming through earlier today, looked much more daunting when they reared up abruptly out of the darkness.  But at that moment, it seemed unthinkable to wait for morning.  Abed and Annie glanced at each other, nodded, and raced forward into the water.

When there was a break between waves, Abed dove into the sea, Annie hurrying to follow.  They couldn’t get far before the next crest crashed down on them without warning.  Tasting saltwater, Annie came up for air only for a second wave to strike.  Disoriented, she looked around for Abed.  There he was, swimming back to find her.

“Are you all right?” he gasped.

“Yeah.”

The breakers behind them, they swam towards the lights.  Annie was riding the swells, gentle out here but lifting her high enough to be alarming, heading straight into a vast and almost invisible sea.  And then she saw Abed’s face lit up both literally and metaphorically, and the hull loomed right in front of her, and she was being pulled out of the water by the host of _Reading Rainbow_.  As she scrambled onto the deck, she saw that Abed had already made it aboard the sailboat.  Next to him, with a beard and a weatherworn sailor’s uniform that were unfamiliar but a smile she recognized instantly, stood Troy Barnes.  Without hesitation, he and Abed reached out and did their secret handshake, then almost fell forward to embrace each other.

 

As much as the knowledge of Troy’s impending return had lifted Abed’s spirits, it couldn’t compare to the reality.  After they were through with their greetings and Troy began to tell them about his journey, as Abed pictured the montage of endless tropical seas and remote islands and fierce storms and distant shores, he recognized a new confidence in Troy, a sign of hard-earned character development, and that made it possible to put their separation in a context that made sense and let go of the resentments he had felt in the darker moments of the last couple seasons.  But the most important thing was just that they were finally together here, and that the study group’s story would go on, that there was more to the future than the slow fragmentation of the Greendale Seven on the way to cancellation.  Annie started crying at one point, but for once he didn’t need to analyze the situation or ask her to see what it meant, he knew it was out of happiness.  And Troy showed them the stars he had learned to navigate by, pointing out the unfamiliar southern constellations that just barely rose above the horizon here—a nice callback to the astronomy class he and Annie had taken in their first semester at Greendale, Abed recalled.

Finally, once they had sat on the rolling deck of the sailboat for hours, the moon rising to leave a startlingly bright reflection streaking across the ocean far into the distance, Troy insisted on hearing what had happened back at Greendale while he was away.  He’d heard brief updates on the rare occasions he was able to call or text, so he knew Annie and Abed had left for the summer, and they hurried to assure him that they were coming home with him.  They told him about saving the school from Subway, about the new members of the Save Greendale Committee, and the secret paintball game that Troy was sorry he had missed even if Abed and Annie both insisted it hadn’t lived up to the standard of the first two.  All of that was simple enough to relate, as was the story of how Annie and Shirley had arranged for the whole group to be here to welcome Troy.  But then he asked the most complicated question yet: how they had managed to show up the moment he arrived, in the middle of the night, on a wild stretch of beach far from their host’s apartment.

Abed turned to Annie in what he hoped was a subtle way, looking for cues about how to proceed.  To his relief she took his hand and nodded.  It was better not to keep anything from Troy, even if it was a lot of exposition for one night.

“That’s a long story with a lot of implications for our characters,” Abed cautioned.  “To give you the abridged version, Annie and I ran some scenarios while we were waiting for you to arrive this week, and we realized some things about our relationship—“

“What, did you guys— _whoa!_ ” Troy exclaimed, noticing them holding hands.  “That’s awesome, but also, what took you so long?”

Abed was momentarily taken aback; he was used to being the observer who could predict future plot twists.  Annie just grinned sheepishly.  “Was it that obvious?” she inquired.

“Well, some of your movie reenactments always seemed a _little_ more intense than the plot demanded.  And when we let you join in on _Inspector Spacetime_ simulations, you always made it seem like the Inspector and Geneva had something going on that wasn’t there on the show.  Sort of like fanfiction.”

Abed made a mental note that he’d underestimated Troy’s observational skills.  And that his own didn’t always apply as well to himself.

“So wait, how does this explain you two finding me here?”  Troy wondered.

“Well—long walks on the beach are a classic date idea…,” Annie trailed off, fidgeting.

“Why are you acting all evasive, like when you’ve cleaned up food we were leaving out to eat later?”

“The others don’t know yet and Shirley’s condo isn’t big enough to afford much privacy for illicit trysts,” Abed elaborated.  Annie gave her little offended gasp.  “We all share an apartment, it doesn’t make sense to keep anything secret,” Abed defended himself.

Annie huffed in exasperation while Troy and Abed did their handshake for the seventh time since they’d reunited.  “You know, leaving food out could draw rats, you might thank me for sparing you the panic attack when you see one,” she retaliated.

“Oh, I’m over that,” Troy replied casually.  “ _Way_ too much time in port towns.  It’s like that exposure therapy thing Britta talks about.  They’re really kind of cute when you get used to them.  You should have seen the size of the one that tried to stow away in Sumatra.”

“That’s great character development,” Abed commented.

Unable to stay mad at her roommates tonight, Annie giggled, hugged Troy, and kissed Abed.  “We still need to tell you about the movie we’re working on,” she announced.  Between that and the next round of Troy’s stories, they talked until the sun came up, glowing red against the sea on the eastern horizon.


	11. Advanced Study Group Reunions

Troy Barnes finished his voyage around the world on a warm, calm September morning, swimming through the surf to climb onto the welcoming sand.  His shipmate followed, and then Abed and Annie, exhausted but content as they rode the waves in to shore.  They walked at a leisurely pace up the beach, making their way towards Shirley’s apartment to celebrate with the rest of the group.  Still, as they rode the elevator up to their floor, Annie worried about the reunion she had been so excited to arrange—for just one reason: she might need to explain to the others how she and Abed had already run into Troy.  At the last minute, she made up her mind to interrupt Troy and Abed’s conversation to come up with a cover story, but Troy was already running ahead in his eagerness to see everyone.

The issue was put on hold when no one answered the door.  Annie momentarily assumed that they would have to wait outside, thinking the spare key must be at the bottom of the Atlantic after their impromptu midnight swim, but Abed produced it from a zippered pocket.  She grinned, impressed by his preparedness.  Inside the apartment, they saw no sign of Shirley.

“Maybe she went for a walk?” Troy wondered.

Annie glanced around and shook her head grimly.  The doors to both guest rooms were wide open, not how they had left them yesterday.  Entering her room, she found her bags open, her meticulous organizational system disrupted.  Annie’s time with the FBI had taught her to recognize the signs of an intruder.  She glanced at Abed.  “I think we might be in trouble.”

 

There was surely nothing to seriously worry about; Shirley Bennett was on the case.  As Abed would point out, TV detectives always coincidentally stumbled onto a mystery when they went on vacation.  Though the apparent disappearance of both Abed and Annie was alarming, no doubt everything would turn out to be fine.  And maybe tracking Annie down would level the playing field between them after Annie’s little caper in Washington won her investigative bragging rights for a while.  Not that that was important.  Lacking hard evidence, the first step was to locate possible witnesses, or maybe suspects.  It _would_ be just typical of Jeff and Britta to lure young innocents into disreputable late-night activities and not even bother to invite her.

Shirley knocked loudly on the door of their motel room.  After a minute, a disheveled-looking Jeff Winger opened the door.  “Shirley?  You know, some of us like to sleep during our time off—“

“Where are Annie and Abed?  I know you wouldn’t corrupt them with your late-night carousing in bars and not tell me about it.”

“Wha—I don’t know, I left them at your place last night!  Aren’t they still there?”

There went that theory.  “They were last night, but I haven’t seen any sign of them since.”

Jeff rolled his eyes.  “They probably just went for a walk, you know they’ve both been hanging out on the beach expecting Troy to show up any minute.”

Shirley shook her head.  “Their beds don’t look slept in and I couldn’t find any of the clothes they were wearing yesterday.”

Britta walked up behind Jeff.  “You went through their luggage?  You know, the fourth amendment—“

“It’s my apartment, Britta!  If you want to protect them, help me figure out what happened to them.  One of my towels is missing, so they might be on the beach.  You walk up to my place.  Jeffrey, come with me; they’ve been exploring that nature reserve, we need to make sure an alligator didn’t get them.”

 

Annie scanned the beach with trepidation, wondering what the others had thought of her disappearance.  Shirley had apparently been concerned enough to go through her luggage; she must be out looking for her and Abed now.  Not seeing their host among the scattering of early-morning beachgoers nearby, she glanced back to Troy and Abed, who were keeping lookout atop the dunes (LeVar had wisely chosen to wait in the lobby while they dealt with explaining things to the study group).  “Should we call Shirley, or wait for her to get back?” she asked.

Abed considered for a moment.  “Meeting her in person would be more dramatically compelling, but I suppose calling to announce Troy’s arrival might divert her attention from questioning our absence.”

Annie reached for her phone, but Troy interrupted, pointing to the south where one of the people in the distance had started running towards them.  To her relief, Annie recognized Britta and saw that she was alone.  “Back to plan A,” she announced to Abed, who nodded.

After giving Britta and Troy a minute to talk, the couple walked over to them and explained to Britta what had happened in the last few days.  As Abed had predicted, she was pointedly self-congratulatory about suspecting the tension between them, but eager to help.

“I think Jeff will handle it OK,” she reassured Annie.  “He wants you to be happy and he cares about Abed.”

“Right now I’m worried about Shirley—I think she’s noticed that we’re missing, and if she found out we were sneaking off to, you know…”

“Yeah, she’s already arranged a search party.  She woke me up and sent me here to look for you.  She’s going the other way down the shore with Jeff.”  Annie gasped in alarm; she hadn’t realized how seriously they would take the matter.  “It’s all right!”  Britta said.  “I’ll cover for you.  I’ve got this.  C’mon, let’s call them before they send the Coast Guard after you.”

 

With no specific leads, searching the nature preserve might have seemed a daunting task for two people.  It included much of the land along the bay shore west of the condo development, as well as the coast along the point of land to the south, and the inland territory was largely swampland with a maze of unmarked trails.  Shirley wished her kids could have flown out this week; Elijah and Jordan had explored the whole area, they could have guided the search party.  But the missing towel suggested that they should start on the beach, and Shirley had led Jeff to the spot where the main road ended just inland from the dunes.  The two of them climbed upward to get a wider view.  Before they could see over the top to the ocean, Shirley noticed something that didn’t fit: a piece of orange cloth fluttering in the sea breeze, the bright color contrasting sharply with the subdued landscape of sand and sparse grass.  “That’s the towel that was missing,” she told Jeff.  Previously sarcastic about their search, her friend now looked concerned; here was concrete evidence that Abed and Annie had disappeared out here.  The towel was caught on a tall tuft of grass, looking like it had been carried over the top of the dunes by the wind.  Shirley scrambled the rest of the way up, Jeff close behind.

From up there, they could see for miles along the beach.  The crowds were just beginning to arrive to the north, next to the street; in the other direction there were only a handful of walkers among great flocks of seagulls.  But Shirley’s eye was drawn to the water, where a sailboat sat at anchor a short distance beyond the breakers.  It looked deserted, but familiar.  “That’s Troy’s boat!”

“Oh, well that explains everything,” Jeff said in a relieved tone.  “They went out, ran into Troy, and stayed with him.”

“Not everything.  It doesn’t explain what those two were doing sneaking out of my apartment in the middle of the night.”

 

Hearing footsteps outside the door, Abed nudged Annie, who had fallen asleep on his shoulder almost as soon as they finally sat down on Shirley’s couch.  Though he was exhausted too after staying up all night, Abed couldn’t sleep yet; he needed to see the rest of the reunion episode play out.  Shirley and Jeff’s arrival could make a good finale: the remaining members of the study group all gathered again, with LeVar as the guest star filling Pierce’s spot for the moment.  The one remaining concern was the fallout from his new relationship with Annie, but maybe that could wait until they were back at Greendale.

Troy was waiting at the door to greet them; Shirley hugged him, while Jeff congratulated him and offered his advice on the legal complications of inheriting Pierce’s fortune.  But after the greetings were done, Shirley looked sternly at Annie and Abed.

“You two had us all worried.  How did you manage to disappear as soon as Troy showed up?”

Britta winked at them, enthusiastically taking on the secret-keeping role.  “Annie saw Troy’s boat from the balcony, so she woke Abed up and they went to find him.  They would have told you, but they didn’t want to disturb you.”

Abed saw Annie wince.  Given the opportunity, he would have warned Britta that Shirley might have been hurt to be deliberately left out of such an expedition, but it wasn’t likely to matter.  Too late he realized that Britta hadn’t known just where Troy had landed.  Sure enough, Shirley immediately questioned the story.

“I saw where that boat is, you couldn’t have recognized it from this far away.  And why would you bring one of my beach towels and then abandon it?”

Annie spoke up.  “Uh, listen…I wasn’t sure how to talk to you guys about this…”

“Have you and Abed been dating and kept it a secret from us?”

In retrospect, this wasn’t a surprising plot device, but Abed hadn’t seen it coming.  He made a note to be more aware of Shirley’s observational skills as well.  Between that and Annie’s career plans, the study group could make an elite detective agency if they ever needed a reboot to keep things fresh.

“How did you know?” Annie asked, fidgeting.  There was still the issue of Jeff’s possible reaction to sort out.

“I’ve been seeing you two holding hands and whispering to each other all week!  Besides, it just makes sense.  You share an apartment and already have weird in-jokes nobody else understands, and you’d be really sweet together.”

“Awww, thanks!”  Annie turned towards Jeff.  “We didn’t really mean to announce it like this—“

“Don’t worry about it,” Jeff cut her off.  “You deserve someone who can make you happy, and Abed’s the first person I’d trust to do that.”

“And there’s the lesson in trusting our friends,” Abed announced.  “This storyline proceeded to a tidier conclusion than I expected.”

“Great,” Jeff replied.  “Then maybe we can stop being meta and start celebrating Greendale’s newest world-travelling multimillionaire, Troy Barnes!”

Shirley headed for the kitchen; Abed had seen her baking a cake with a world map on it a couple days ago.  As the others followed, Annie snuggled up to Abed again.  “I guess we didn’t need to worry so much about telling the others,” she whispered.

“Yeah.  I’m hoping that will clear the way for us to have more epic genre-based escapades when we get back to Greendale.  And maybe we can work on _Time-osaurs 3_ together.”

Annie smiled and came in for a kiss.

“Cool.  Cool cool cool.”


	12. Interior Design & Interspecies Alliances

Outside the windows of Apartment 303, beyond the rooftops of the neighboring buildings and the campus in the distance, the snowy peaks of the Rockies glowed with the last light of the sunset.  Annie watched fondly, finally feeling at home.  Turning away from the window, she grabbed a blanket and headed for the half-finished fort rising in the middle of the living room that had looked sadly conventional since Troy’s departure.  Abed took the other end and helped her pull the quilt up to roof level while Troy adjusted the ropes they had added for extra structural support, a task delayed a bit by the two cats competing to capture the dangling end of the string.

She and Abed had spent most of their last few days in Florida with Troy, sharing more stories of life at Greendale and on the high seas, filming the dramatic (and romantic, thanks to Annie’s contributions to the script) conclusion of _Time-osaurs 2_ , and even returning to the sailboat for a day out at sea.  Now, after all the excitement, at last they were back home, getting ready for another semester at Greendale.  Ordinarily Annie would have been spending most of her time preparing for her classes and her new internship, but restoring the apartment they’d been absent from for a summer to its former glory clearly took precedence.  Besides, she’d already reviewed everything several times before leaving for vacation.

Britta, walking from the kitchen to her fold-out couch, stumbled over one of the support ropes.  Though not hurt, she sighed in exasperation.  “Do you even need a blanket fort?  I let you have the bedrooms and if Abed and Annie are a thing now…”

“Uh, yeah!”  Troy announced.  “We need it to have awesome sleepovers and movie nights in!”  He gestured to the TV they had placed in a corner of the fort.  “Besides, you can have your room back when my architects are finished with the mansion.”

“How long will that be?” Britta asked with apprehension.

“You can’t rush something this great,” Troy said defensively.  “They aren’t plumbing geniuses like me, it’ll take them some time to understand my design for the indoor water park.”

Annie smiled and took Abed’s hand.  Of course the two of them had immediately accepted Troy’s offer to move in with him when his estate was ready.  Troy had also bought their current building from the creepy landlord; he meant to give Britta a deal on the rent so that she and the cats could have the place to themselves and keep the apartment in the study group.  But Annie was glad it would take a long time for the new place to be ready, so they could all be back in their old apartment for a while.

After a few more minutes of work, the roof of the blanket fort was finished.  The three roommates looked around, admiring their handiwork.  “The floor is lava!”  Abed shouted, jumping onto an armchair.  Annie scrambled to the couch, watching him affectionately.  He hadn’t often been so enthusiastic when Troy was away.  She recognized the callback to bookend Troy’s journey, too.

Troy had taken the other end of the couch, standing precariously on the back.  Grinning mischievously, Annie leaned over and pulled on the arm, rocking the sofa sideways.  Troy kept his footing effortlessly and scoffed at her ploy.  “You can’t out-balance a sailor, Annie,” he said, advancing and swinging a cushion at her.

With no room to retreat on the couch, Annie spun around and vaulted towards the bunk bed, restored to its place in the fort for sleepovers even though Troy had his own room and Abed would be sharing with Annie.  She barely managed to grab hold of the top bunk to keep from falling, then ducked onto the bottom level.  “Over here, Abed!” she called.  “This is the best defensive position!”  Abed slid across the TV table and swung the remaining distance on one of the fort’s support ropes.  To Annie’s amazement, the blankets shook but nothing fell down; Troy had secured the structure well.  Dodging a flying pillow, Abed dove acrobatically onto the bottom bunk to sit next to Annie.

“No fair, we didn’t discuss alliances!”  Troy yelled.

“Good point,” Abed observed.  Annie gave him her Disney look and leaned close against him.  “But that’s part of the accepted game strategy,” he added quickly.

Troy grabbed one of the ropes on the ceiling and hoisted himself onto the top bunk before they could intervene.  Annie and Abed huddled together, pillows in hand, awaiting his next move.  At first nothing much seemed to happen, except for a string falling down in front of them and waving around as if Troy was trying to modify the fort.  Then there was a scuffling sound beneath them and Annie suddenly understood.  Before she could do anything, the string lifted up and a cat burst onto the bed in pursuit, claws out.  She and Abed instinctively sprang backwards, crashing through the wall of the blanket fort, and landed tangled together on the floor near Britta’s bed, leaving Troy and his feline ally in triumphant possession of the bunks.  Laughing, Annie sat up and bent to kiss Abed.

Britta groaned.  “You know what, I’m going to Jeff’s place tonight.  Can one of you feed the cats?”  Troy eagerly volunteered.

When Britta had left the apartment, Annie glanced conspiratorially at Troy and Abed.  “To celebrate our return, should we make the whole place a fort for tonight?”  They assented, and agreed that before they took down the extension of their stronghold they would host a reunion of the Save Greendale Committee.  Annie hoped that a taste of traditional Greendale weirdness would persuade Frankie and the Dean to embrace more of the school’s wacky nature—especially with Troy as a newly influential alumnus to lobby them.  They’d accomplished a lot in the last couple years, but Annie had come to feel that Greendale was a place that should always be a little bizarre.  Not that she really needed to worry about any administrative policy changing that; she’d learned some interesting things about her school recently.  But in any case, with Troy back and her new connection with Abed, she knew her life here would never be dull.

Later, when they had created tunnels of blankets stretching from the front door to the bedrooms—Annie suspected Abed had kept so many blankets in the apartment just in hopes of having another chance to do this with Troy—the three of them sat down in the central fort for a cozy night in front of the TV.  “ _Inspector Spacetime_?  _Inspector Spacetime_?  _Inspector Spacetime_?”  Abed asked.  As he set up the DVD, Abed echoed Annie’s earlier thoughts.  “It’s good that we’re taking a class together.  It’ll help get us back to our formula.”  Troy had signed up to take one class with the others just to spend some time at Greendale.  “But it’s weird now that we’ve solved so many of Greendale’s problems.  It kind of constrains the opportunities for hijinks.  Maybe the reboot will focus more on our home lives.  Acting on our romantic subtext does help make that a compelling premise.”  Annie giggled and wrapped her arm around him.  “But I hope we can keep the school storyline vital as well.  Maybe we’ll discover a secret that opens the door to some more exciting plots.”

“You mean like buried treasure and a secret government operation hidden on campus?”  Annie suggested, trying to sound mysterious.  Troy and Abed stared at her, intrigued.  “I still haven’t told you guys exactly how I left the FBI…”


End file.
